黄酮类化合物合成途径及合成生物学研究进展

黄酮类化合物是来源于植物的一类重要的次生代谢产物,具有抗癌、抗氧化、抗炎、降低血管脆性等多种药理作用。黄酮类化合物的主要合成途径已经研究得比较清晰,即首先合成二氢黄酮类的柚皮素或松属素,然后进一步通过分支途径合成黄酮、异黄酮、黄酮醇、黄烷醇和花色素等。黄酮生物合成途径的解析为其合成生物学研究奠定了基础。利用合成生物学技术已成功在大肠杆菌或酵母中合成了黄酮类化合物,如柚皮素、松属素和非瑟酮等。合成生物学研究为黄酮类化合物提供了新的来源,将进一步推动黄酮类药物和保健品的研发,使其在人类饮食和健康等领域发挥更大的作用。

Advance in flavonoids biosynthetic pathway and synthetic biology

Flavonoids are the valuable components in medicinal plants, which possess a variety of pharmacological activities, including anti-tumor, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. There is an unambiguous understanding about flavonoids biosynthetic pathway, that is,2S-flavanones including naringenin and pinocembrin are the skeleton of other flavonoids and they can transform to other flavonoids through branched metabolic pathway. Elucidation of the flavonoids biosynthetic pathway lays a solid foundation for their synthetic biology. A few flavonoids have been produced in Escherichia coli or yeast with synthetic biological technologies, such as naringenin, pinocembrin and fisetin. Synthetic biology will provide a new way to get valuable flavonoids and promote the research and development of flavonoid drugs and health products, making flavonoids play more important roles in human diet and health.